The omega meson (ω) is a flavourless meson formed from a superposition of an up quark–antiquark and a down quark–antiquark pair. It is part of the vector meson nonet and mediates the nuclear force along with pions and rho mesons.
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👉 Omega meson in the context of Pion
In particle physics, a pion (/ˈpaɪ.ɒn/, PIE-on) or pi meson, denoted with the Greek letter pi (π), is any of three subatomic particles: π
, π
, and π
. Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson. Pions are the lightest mesons and, more generally, the lightest hadrons. They are unstable, with the charged pions π
and π
decaying after a mean lifetime of 26.033 nanoseconds (2.6033×10 seconds), and the neutral pion π
decaying after a much shorter lifetime of 85 attoseconds (8.5×10 seconds). Charged pions most often decay into muons and muon neutrinos, while neutral pions generally decay into gamma rays.
The exchange of virtual pions, along with vector, rho and omega mesons, provides an explanation for the residual strong force between nucleons. Pions are not produced in radioactive decay, but commonly are in high-energy collisions between hadrons. Pions also result from some matter–antimatter annihilation events. All types of pions are also produced in natural processes when high-energy cosmic-ray protons and other hadronic cosmic-ray components interact with matter in Earth's atmosphere. In 2013, the detection of characteristic gamma rays originating from the decay of neutral pions in two supernova remnants has shown that pions are produced copiously after supernovas, most probably in conjunction with production of high-energy protons that are detected on Earth as cosmic rays.
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Omega meson in the context of Rho meson
In particle physics, a rho meson is a short-lived hadronic particle that is an isospin triplet whose three states are denoted as ρ
, ρ
and ρ
. Along with pions and omega mesons, the rho meson carries the nuclear force within the atomic nucleus. After the octet consisting of the pions, kaons, and eta meson, the rho mesons are the lightest strongly interacting particle, with a mass of about 775 MeV for all three states.
The rho mesons have a very short lifetime and their decay width is about 145 MeV; because that is large compared with the mass, the resonance width measurably deviates from a Breit–Wigner form. The principal decay route of the rho mesons is to a pair of pions with a branching rate of 99.9% (however, all neutral pions is forbidden).